Rod Laver wants to know where the reporters come, sit at the table with him. Chile, USA, Switzerland, India and Spain, we say. “The Rocket” seems to be impressed. “How is the tennis scene has developed, how international it has become, and how today it is played, is incredible,” he says, before the question round begins.
The 50-year anniversary of his second Grand slam – winning the four biggest tournaments in the same year Tennis Australia produces a Film about Lavers former successes, he also sees this Wednesday for the first time. The Australian is now 80, a small man, of course a little uncertain, the eyes watery. With Numbers and names he is struggling, but his long-term memory works. The Film moved him, old memories to flare up.
“When we played, it was Tennis, another little world,” says the winner of 200 tournaments. “The players are now looked after much better. I received four thugs, who filed for a year. A set of strings was enough for Wimbledon. If you hit the Ball always in the middle of the Rackets, he was not fast enough. And when the strings moved, fixed I sometimes, with a Tape.”
And then the shoes! “Every six months there was for me a new Pair.” Laver laughs. “When I see how many players today for each batch, a Couple of consume, I wonder whether you race so much, or if the shoes are not very good.”
The lesson in the pros
The left-hander won only eleven Grand Slam titles, in 1962 and 1969, but all four – is a Double, with which it is in the history of tennis alone. His first Grand Slam he achieved as an Amateur, the second shortly after the dawn of the Profiära. In 1963, he joined the small group of professionals that apply their own occasions, are very familiar, and only from the French Open in 1968, the Grand Slam tournaments were allowed to participate.
“I couldn’t afford to stay Amateur,” says the Gstaad-winner of 1962, “I had taken up with Tennis.” From the level in the pros, he was first overwhelmed, the known for his modesty-attack player of the Australian East coast. “They were much better. My idols Lew Hoad, Pancho Gonzalez and Ken Rosewall. The granted me some hard lessons. Against Hoad, I lost 13 times in a row.”
Laver did in 1962, as the second player, after American Don Budge (1938) the Grand Slam. Seven years later, his satisfaction was greater, because now the whole world elite. “I was a lot better than my times as an Amateur.” He remembers a lot. “It was the first Time that all four tournaments for the professionals were open and I said to my wife that I wanted to ride all the best. She said: Only, it is your career. When I was in Australia, she called me from our home in California and said she was pregnant.” The birth had been predicted for the final day of the US Open, ahead of what he regarded as a good Omen. First Tennis, then family.
The lawn player
at That time, in addition to Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the US Open on grass was held, was for him an advantage to have been, says the man, according to the Melbourne’s main stadium is named, what fills him with Pride. “The Europeans are not often played on turf, we Australians almost always. My Problem was that I had to learn to play on the Sand.” There, he had been of the Europeans, first of all, so often beaten, that he had resolved to the radical. “I wanted to know what they did with me, and signed me up for all the tournaments. Slowly I discovered some of your secrets.”
Lavers paths will lead him this year in Switzerland, where in Geneva’s Palexpo hall the 3. Laver-Cup increases (20. to 22. September). This is going to be very special in that it is Federer’s homeland, he says. He knows that it would not give the occasion without the 20-times Grand-Slam winner. “Roger is a historian. He didn’t want the successes of the previous generations to disappear in the shadow, and found that my Name is big enough to represent all the previous Champions.” In spite of his admiration and sympathy for the Swiss, he does not believe, however, that this long record Grand Slam will remain the Champion. “I doubt that Roger will get a lot of major titles. Maybe at Wimbledon, because he is a turf player. But Djokovic is expected of him and Nadal to overtake.”
But – as I said, with regard to Numbers, is not Laver the whole of the saddle. So he moved to Federer’s win in Melbourne over Baghdatis, after which he handed the Cup to presented – “about eight years ago,” there are three tens. And at some point the rocket from Rockhampton will ask “the” in the round: “How many Grand Slam titles Roger has actually 17?” There are 20, compared with 17, Nadal, and 14 of Djokovic. At least until Sunday.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 23.01.2019, 22:48 PM
